fleece

From Middle English flees, flese, flus, fleos, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.

• IPA^(key): /fliːs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːs

fleece (countable and uncountable, plural fleeces)

1. (uncountable) Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal
2. (uncountable) Insulating skin with the wool attached
3. (countable) A textile similar to velvet, but with a longer pile that gives it a softness and a higher sheen.
4. (countable) An insulating wooly jacket
5. (roofing) Mat or felts composed of fibers, sometimes used as a membrane backer.
6. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
7. The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.

• fleeceless
• fleecewear
• fleece wool
• fleecy
• Golden Fleece

fleece (third-person singular simple present fleeces, present participle fleecing, simple past and past participle fleeced)

1. (transitive) To con or trick (someone) out of money.
   • 2015 August 2, “All bets are off: why bookmakers aren’t playing fair”, in The Observer‎, archived from the original on 21 January 2020:

     There is a difference between bookmaking, an entirely respectable profession, and fleecing people, which isn’t.

2. (transitive) To shear the fleece from (a sheep or other animal).

   During spring shearing we have to fleece all the sheep in just a few days.

3. (transitive) To cover with, or as if with, wool.

• (con): nickel and dime

• IPA^(key): /ˈfliːsi/, [ˈfliːs̠i]
• IPA^(key): /ˈfliːs/, [ˈfliːs̠] (often in compound terms)
• IPA^(key): /ˈfleːse/, [ˈfle̞ːs̠e̞] (dated)

fleece

1. Unadapted alternative form of fliisi (“fleece, fleece coat”).

• As is the case with many loanwords, the inflection of this term is problematic. Kotus recommends using the "nalle" category in writing, as shown above, but in speech the declension usually follows the "risti" category; see the declension table for fliisi.

Borrowed from English fleece.

IPA^(key): /fliːs/

fleece c

1. polar fleece

• fleece in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• fleece in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)